Steve Miller: Even Lansing's internal auditor can't get access to some of city's public records

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero contends the internal auditor's request would require a report that he has no obligation to provide.File Photo | MLive.com

Charles Hoffmeyer has run into the same problem regarding Michigan’s sadly lacking transparency laws as so many others; he’s sure the city of Lansing is in violation of the Freedom of Information Act.

He just doesn’t have the extra money to get his case before a judge, which most public entities in Michigan count on when defying the open records law.

Even if Hoffmeyer, who came up short this week in a bid for a spot on the Lansing City Council, wanted to cough up the fee for a court filing, you can be sure the city would spend your money with gusto in defending itself.

The issue is license plate readers.

There’s a good chance that if you’ve driven around and/or parked on Lansing streets, your license plate was captured and retained by one of the Lansing Police Department’s three automatic license plate readers.

Hoffmeyer’s pursuit of what local law enforcement has gathered on your travel habits began in May.

Hoffmeyer knew the devices were being used because then- interim police chief Mike Yankowski told him so in a letter.

On May 21, Hoffmeyer filed an open records request: “I am requesting an electronic extract of license plate data collected to-date by any Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) devices used by Lansing PD,” he wrote.

On May 30, the police department came back with a denial: “The [license plate readers] are not being used at this time.”

Hoffmeyer trudged on in this maze of obfuscation, sending a copy of the chief’s letter to him that confirmed the use of the plate readers.

The letter of denial came from council member Carol Wood, a non-lawyer who included her own misguided interpretation of transparency: “Disclosure of the information would not advance the core purpose of FOIA, which is to contribute significantly to the public understanding of government.”

To be in the proper legal ballpark, Wood would have been better advised to note that the proper citation of the purpose of FOIA cited in case law is “contributing significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government.”

Those words - operations or activities - pack a big difference.

The collecting of our license plate data – and by extension our comings and goings – would help us understand the operations of government to a high degree.

“This seems to be the pattern of the city of Lansing in response to open records requests,” Hoffmeyer told me last week. “First deny you have the records, then deny the request. And I’d imagine that happens to a lot of people.”

Even the city’s own internal auditor, Jim DeLine, whose job it is to police the spending of public money, is having a hard time getting the city to turn over records.

As he was doing his job, DeLine in September found an authorized expenditure for local tech company Dewpoint dated July 5. It had no specifics, just a bill for 2,088 hours at a rate of $90 per hour and a total of $187,920.

There was no detail for services performed to warrant the outlay. So he went looking for the contract or work order between the city and Dewpoint.

But instead of help from his colleagues at the city, DeLine met with shrugs. He sent emails to various departments asking for paperwork that shows what kind of deal with city has with Dewpoint but no one would help.

On October 28, DeLine informed a council subcommittee that he hadn’t been able to find out what the deal is with Dewpoint. He told the panel that he may have to resort to filing an open records request on the very city he works for.

“We’re going to have complete transparency. We’re going to measure outcomes for what state government does so that we get more bang for the buck.”

Bernero did not respond to an email seeking comment on the city’s open records policy. He claimed recently on a local radio show there is a contract with Dewpoint, but then said getting information to DeLine would be creating a report, which he said he doesn’t have the obligation nor time to do. An existing contract is not a report, to be sure.

Dewpoint refused to comment.

In a public report regarding Dewpoint, DeLine poignantly wrote, “It is recommended that the administration be more forthcoming to the Internal Auditor. The lack of cooperation does not bode well for them. It might lead the City Council, the press and the public to believe they are not willing to be forthcoming with how tax dollars are being spent. “

DeLine is not the difficult one here. But at least he is being honest.

Steve Miller writes about government transparency for MLive and our partner Lansing City Pulse, a weekly alternative newspaper in Lansing. Miller is a 2012 Edgar nominee for his true crime book, Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender. His latest of six books, Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock 'n Roll in America's Loudest City, is in bookstores now. You can email him at penvengeance@gmail.com.